“The Wanderer”
Eddie Rabbitt
Written by Ernie Maresca
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
July 29, 1988
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 27, 1988
On paper, Eddie Rabbitt covering Dion’s “The Wanderer” makes perfect sense.
They were both born and raised in the NYC metropolitan area, and both drew influences from R&B and rockabilly. So why doesn’t this cover work as well as the original?
Because the original was a teenage rock and roll record sung by a man in his early twenties. He still wants to wander around and doesn’t want to settle down. He’s a bit of an immature cad, but life will catch up to him.
Rabbitt, however, is singing this song in his forties to the country audience that has settled down since the rock and roll days of their youth. A man claiming to be a wanderer at that point is stuck in a state of arrested development, and likely leaving wives and kids behind in his wake. He sounds like a jerk.
Now the real appeal of the record at the time was that Rabbitt was one of those rock and rollers that had grown up and settled down. Covering this song was a way for him to connect with his generational peers, and he just as easily could’ve cut “Runaround Sue” and taken that one to the top.
I could see this record working within that specific context. But as a standalone record? Not one of Rabbitt’s best.
“The Wanderer” gets a C.
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Ed. Note: No YouTube video clip available for this record.
Does Eddie Rabbitt (or his estate) shield his music from You Tube and/or other download sites like Garth Brooks and The Eagles? This is the second time you weren’t able to offer a video clip of his 1988 #1’s. The last time I was able to find my own video of “I Wanna Dance with You” but found nothing on You Tube for “The Wanderer”. But I once got a discount Eddie Rabbitt Greatest Hits CD and was able to dust that off and listen to this song.
I actually thought “The Wanderer” was one of Rabbitt’s better hits, continuing the retro 50s/60s vibe that Rabbitt, Milsap, and so many other older acts were seizing upon to take advantage of the nostalgia of the time. Regarding your point that the lyrics are not age-appropriate, I’m of two minds about that. I thought the similarly themed “Rollin’ with the Flow” was perfectly suited to Charlie Rich (or Mark Chesnutt for that matter) as middle-aged drifters who refuse to grow up. Then again, the lyrics to “The Wanderer” are more explicit and don’t lend themselves to a lifestyle that any mentally balanced 40-something could be as proud of themselves for in the way the lyrical delivery requires. So on one hand, Rabbitt gives a solid conventional performance, but on the other hand if he wanted to sell this song believably for a man of his vintage, the performance needed to be injected with some regret or self-loathing that I can’t pick up on at all here. That would have potentially made for a much more interesting record, but clearly Rabbitt and his record company were just going for the easy commercial free throw here.
Grade: B
Yes, and because I’m many of these technologies have launched a different times, sometimes things are good to go for Spotify, but not for YouTube and vice versa.
It was really frustrating for the Pam Tillis ranked feature. Nothing from Rhinestoned is available for streaming.
Kevin, The Wanderer also went to #1 on Radio & Records on July 29, 1988 in addition to Billboard on August 27, 1988, so the next #1 song after it should be Don’t We Have All The Right by Ricky Van Shelton on Billboard on July 30, 1988, not We Believe In Happy Endings by Earl Thomas Conley with Emmylou Harris on Radio & Records on September 2, 1988 and Billboard on October 1, 1988. So Kevin, Please fix it ASAP. Thank You.
Thank you, Richie. Any similar mistakes that you catch are appreciated!
The change to RCA reflected the decline in Rabbitt’s success. By the time “The Wanderer” was issued, his albums and singles were no longer charting pop and even the singles, while still producing some #1 hits were often missing the top five on the country charts. I think that with this record Rabbitt was searching for something to reenergize his career. I am not sure anything would have worked as Eddie was already 47 years old, a bit old for radio to have much interest in him. 1989’s “On Second Thought” represented a last hurrah and maybe was something that would have sustained his career if he had done it five years earlier. By 1989 it was a bit of a “me too”, if indeed an excellent one – maybe even his best ever single.
I always regretted that Rabbitt died at such a young age. I would have liked for him to have had the opportunity to recast some of his pop-country hits with a more traditional backing or perhaps as bluegrass.
The drive and energy of his early hits just are just not heard here. A wandering and listless performance by a dynamic star of the decade who has already showed us what he is capable of when he drops his needle into a country-pop groove.
This kind of artistic misfire is increasingly emblematic of older artists unsure of which way to step with their sound, not a convincing enough dive into the past to drive new musical discoveries for young listeners nor interesting enough to be celebrated as new country.
Rabbit has essentially been caught creatively standing still with this one.